Fastjet raises survival doubts

Harare (New Ziana) – Fastjet Zimbabwe on Friday raised doubts about its survival if flight operations do not resume to sustainable levels by September.

At present, the low cost airline is only running limited repatriation flights from South Africa to Zimbabwe, about three times per month.

Fastjet wants to resume routine commercial flight operations, but requires the greenlight from the South African and Zimbabwean governments which closed their borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The airline said unless it was allowed to resume flights, it would run out of funds by the end of next month, and forced to shut down by September.

“If flight operations do not restart to sustainable levels by the beginning of September or the company is unable to access hard currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through repayment against the company’s historical legacy loans, it will cease to be a going concern,” Fastjet Zimbabwe said.

“Therefore, in the event that the company is unable to find alternative solutions before 31 August 2020, then the directors believe the company would be unable to continue trading as a going concern beyond 31 August 2020.”

It said it was holding preliminary investment talks with potential shareholders, but these were not progressing because of the uncertainty regarding the lifting of the Covid-19 lockdowns in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

New Ziana